CFO's report improvement in credit conditions

CFOs are slightly more upbeat on credit conditions after the first quarter of 2009, the Deloitte CFO survey has found.

But the majority surveyed say that credit remains expensive and elusive to obtain.

Cuts in the cash rates have to some extent flowed into reduced borrowing costs for businesses, with 64 per cent of CFOs reporting some improvement. Government intervention, by contrast was having little impact on the lives of CFOs attempting to refinance debt facilities.

Most of those surveyed did not expect to see any improvement in the price or supply of credit this year, but there was more optimism regarding conditions in 2010. Fifty-nine per cent thought conditions would imrpove in 2010, but a third of CFOs surveyed didn't forsee any real change until 2011.